Congress says it’s open to alliance with AGP in Assam, gets the cold shoulder

With AGP pulling out of the BJP-led NDA last week over the Citizenship Amendment Bill, the Congress senses an opportunity.

New Delhi: The Congress in Assam has expressed its “willingness” to join hands with the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) after it quit its alliance with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), but the AGP says “it isn’t interested at the moment”.

Speaking to ThePrint, former Assam chief minister and Congress leader Tarun Gogoi and AGP president Atul Bora seemed to be on different wavelengths for now.

The state of politics in Assam was thrown wide open last week after the AGP pulled out of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), opposing the Centre’s move to push for the vexed Citizenship Amendment Bill.

Sensing an opportunity to make a tactical move against the BJP, the Congress, which has been the dominant party in the state, has said it would welcome any talks with the AGP, but the latter does not seem sure yet.

AGP’s politics

The AGP was forced to snap ties with the BJP over the Citizenship Amendment Bill due to its own politics and the foundation on which it was formed.

The bill, passed by the Lok Sabha in the Winter Session, seeks to make illegal migrants — Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan — eligible for citizenship in India.

The AGP and the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) built their politics on the six-year Assam agitation, demanding identification and deportation of illegal immigrants, which ended in 1985 with the signing of the Assam Accord.

The process of identification through updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC) is currently on in Assam.

The accord echoed the sentiment of the ethnic Assamese that has been opposed to all “outsiders”, irrespective of religion. The AGP’s demand has been to identify and deport all illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, and it feels the bill would violate the clauses of the Assam Accord.

The AGP and Congress have had a bitter political past, with a defined rivalry. While the AGP has stood for the more hardline anti-outsider position, the Congress has been the more moderate face in the state.